Saturday, January 17, 2015

Bakken Towns Push Back Against Increasing Train Traffic

By Alexander Obrecht January 13, 2015No. America Shale Blog
.....Frustrated with delays caused by idle trains, two North Dakota towns
have taken action to limit the time trains may block railroad crossings.[2] One town—Enderlin—passed an ordinance to that effect in October 2014.[3]
Last week, the Enderlin City Council repealed its ordinance in response
to a lawsuit and pending preliminary injunction motion filed by
Canadian Pacific.[4]

The other town—Berthold—chose a different route. Berthold ordered its
police chief to ticket railroads for blocking both the town’s crossings
for more than 20 minutes.[5] Rather than pass its own ordinance, Berthold relies on a seemingly little enforced provision of the North Dakota Century Code.[6]
Now, BNSF Railway engineers face a penalty of up to 30 days in jail and
up to a $1,500 fine under state law for blocking railroad crossings in
Berthold.[7]

While Enderlin backed down from its ordinance in the face of Canadian
Pacific’s lawsuit, Berthold’s action presents a different hurdle. If
BNSF files a lawsuit, BNSF will not be suing a small municipality with
limited financial means for extraneous litigation costs. Rather, BNSF
must challenge the validity of a state statute, which likely requires
the North Dakota Attorney General to defend that law.[8]
And unlike the Enderlin City Council quickly repealing its ordinance,
the North Dakota Legislature is unlikely to take any action related to
the lawsuit.

Although the towns’ actions directly target railroads, if validated
by a court, similar ordinances and state laws could induce further delay
into a railroad infrastructure already overburdened with record
traffic. Furthermore, additional North Dakota municipalities—and
potentially towns in other states with similar laws—may begin enforcing
the railroad crossing prohibition..... more hereLinks: